Sunday, July 27, 2014

A draft of US Secretary of State John FN Kerry's week-long cease fire proposal, which was unanimously rejected by Israel's cabinet moments before the Sabbath started, shows that Kerry completely ignored Israel's security concerns. The proposal treated Hamas as equal to Israel, and would have prevented Israel from continuing to destroy Hamas' terror tunnels.

The draft described the urgent need of "protecting civilian lives,
ending all hostilities in and from the Gaza Strip and achieving a
sustainable cease-fire and enduring resolution of the crisis." The draft
said that as such, the two sides - "the Palestinian factions and the
State of Israel" have agreed to make the following commitments, detailed
in three subsequent clauses:

a) Establish a humanitarian cease-fire, ending all
hostilities in and from the Gaza Strip, beginning in 48 hours [Sunday
evening], and lasting for a period of seven days
b) Build on the Cairo cease-fire understandings of November 2012 [reached following Operation Cast Lead]
c)
Convene in Cairo, at the invitation of Egypt, within 48 hours to
negotiate resolution of all issues necessary to achieve a sustainable
cease-fire and enduring solution to the crisis in Gaza.

The third clause goes on to spell out, in one way or
another, Hamas' demands: arrangements to secure the opening of
crossings, allow the entry of goods and people and ensure the social and
economic livelihood of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, transfer
of funds to Gaza for the payment of salaries for public employees and
address all security issues.

Israel's demands were mentioned in the most general of
terms in the phrase "address all security issues." There was no one
mention of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip of its rocket supply or
advanced weapons, and not the dismantling of the terror tunnels.

.... According to the
terms of the draft, the Israel Defense Forces would not be asked to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip during the cease-fire, but would be
forbidden from continuing to operate against the tunnels it has located.

The final clause of the draft determined that "members
of the international community, including the United Nations, the Arab
League, the European Union, the United States, Turkey, Qatar and many
others, support the effective implementation of the humanitarian
cease-fire and agreements reached between the parties, in cooperation
and coordination with the parties, and will join in a major humanitarian
assistance initiative to address the immediate needs of the people of
Gaza."

This clause bore no mention of Egypt – the country
which borders the Gaza Strip, which has many vital interests pertaining
to any cease-fire agreement to be signed, and which filled a central
role in similar agreements in the past. Within Kerry's draft, Egypt's
traditional role of supervising implementation of the agreement has been
passed to Turkey and Qatar – two states which support Hamas and are
hostile to Israel.

Last Friday evening, when the draft reached the Prime
Minister's Bureau at the Defense Ministry's headquarters in Tel Aviv,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon,
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and the rest of the security ministers
could not believe what had been written down on paper.

The cabinet ministers, most of them familiar with the
other and better American drafts shown to Israel over the course of
Wednesday and Thursday, were in shock. The ministers voted unanimously
to reject the document. Nevertheless, Israel decided not to issue an
official announcement on the matter, so as to avoid embarrassing the
U.S. secretary of state and burning the bridges at work. Instead, it was
decided that Netanyahu would call Kerry personally and demand
significant improvements to the draft on the matter essential to Israel.

Senior Israeli officials expressed great anger
regarding Kerry's proposal over the weekend. Cabinet ministers described
it as a "prize for terror," claiming that the U.S. secretary of state
had completely adopted the positions presented by the Turkish and Qatari
foreign ministers negotiating on behalf of Hamas.

On Saturday, apparently following his telephone
conversation with Netanyahu, Kerry tried to patch up the damages caused
by the proposal he submitted to Israel the day before.

...

Senior Israeli officials said that the draft presented
by Kerry had been removed from the table, and was no longer under
discussion. "We succeeded in foiling that document and now we are
discussing other options," said the officials.

An associate of Kerry responded as such: "There is no
paper and no proposal. The draft was based on the Egyptian proposal that
Israel whole heartedly supported. So if they are opposed. They are
opposed their own plan."

The press conference U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
convened [on Friday] together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Egyptian
Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry was one of Kerry's most embarrassing
incidents since taking office. And there were quite a few in the last
year and a half.

A few hours before the press conference began, the
Israeli security cabinet ministers unanimously rejected Kerry's
cease-fire plan draft. Kerry, as is his wont, seemed and sounded as if
he came from a parallel universe. He claimed to have never presented
Israel with a formal offer for a cease-fire, slammed the Israeli media's
"mischievous reports" and promised that Netanyahu's office will issue a
clarification.

As if that wasn't enough, Kerry claimed he made
significant progress in the cease-fire talks and said, deadpan, that the
disagreements with Israel are purely on matters of terminology.
Reality, of course, was completely different. If anything happened on
Friday it was another deep crisis in trust between Israeli senior
cabinet members and the American secretary of state.

Would love to see the US media nail Jen Psaki on this at tomorrow's briefing. Most pro-Israel administration evah?

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I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 12 to 33 years and eight grandchildren. Three of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com